Pathfinder by rsaamar
Designed for speedrunners - a fast-paced puzzle game about finding a path to your goal using alternating, limited spaces.
Credit - Rishi Amarnani & Christian Witt
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/54/pathfinder |
Ratings
| Overall | 590th | 3.55⭐ | 32🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 571th | 3.45⭐ | 32🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 270th | 3.717⭐ | 32🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 694th | 3.45⭐ | 32🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 615th | 3.55⭐ | 32🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 754th | 2.5⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 946th | 2.917⭐ | 32🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 24🗳️ | 40🗨️ |
Having to rush to the next safe spot while exploring the maze was great.
The levels sometimes seemed to repeat after beating them. I thought the second level was the last after beating it three times, but it eventually changed to the next one.
The timer could do with 0:00 formatting as when it harder to track when it flickers between 1 and 2 digits.
I also had issues with the input. It wants buttons to be pressed fast, but if you are too fast it doesn't register causing it to feel unresponsive at times.
We considered this, but we realized that what makes our concept work is the urgency of having an overall timer and a switch timer, both of which are fixed. The overall timer makes you find a viable path as soon as possible. The switch timer limits the current paths you can explore.
If we allowed you to switch before the switch timer goes off, I think we give you too much freedom to find a viable path, and its becomes harder for us to design interesting levels.
That being said, maybe I misunderstood your suggestion altogether, so let me know.
That being said, I do agree that we could add additional buffering for movement for the case where you press it faster than its ready.
I had fun with the different levels of added complexity. I think the game would benefit from some fast paced music or sound, but beyond that I had very little in the way of bugs or negative experiences.
I liked the in-game tutorial and the gradual introduction of the game elements. :thumbsup:
The squares with the arrows were a bit confusing, since they point in one fixed direction, while the action is that it shoots you further in the direction you are going. Maybe four outward points arrows would be clearer?
I think the timers would be less distracting if the numbers were formatted with always the same amount of decimals.
The later levels get somewhat confusing, it's hard to get an overview. But if was fun to speed around, discovering different pathways.
Some levels I suddenly finished without knowing how or why. Unfortunately the levels don't have numbers, but these were the later levels with the big jumps (On the second run I paid more attention and saw a flash of a yellow square.)
Overall, original concept! Well done! :clap: